The 10 most common pronunciation mistakes Spanish speakers make

Mistake #1:
Dropping final consonants at the end of words

Mistake #2:
Substituting a final M with N

Mistake #3
Z is pronounced as an S

Mistake #4
The /y/ (as in ‘yes’) consonant sound and the /j/ (as in ‘job) switch places.

Mistake #5
Different vowels are pronounced the same:

Mistake #6
The /v/ consonant is pronounced as /b/

Mistake #7
The American R is replaced with a Spanish R

Mistake #8:
Mispronouncing the H

Mistake #9:
A vowel is added to words beginning with /st/

Mistake #10:
The /th/ consonant sound is substituted with /t/ or /d/.

https://theaccentsway.com/spanish-accent/
The 10 most common pronunciation mistakes Spanish speakers make

Mistake #1:
Dropping final consonants at the end of words

In Spanish, words never end in a consonant cluster (for example, strength, loved, texts)
and are almost impossible for Spanish speakers to pronounce.
Therefore, it is very likely for Spanish speakers to unintentionally drop one or two
consonant sounds if they are part of a final consonant sequence, in order to bring the
pronunciation closer to what’s possible in Spanish – a single consonant.

Min instead of mind

Work instead of worked (pronounced workt)
Tess instead of test.

Mistake #2:
Substituting a final M with N

The M consonant sound exists in Spanish, but it never appears at the end of words so
it can be quite challenging for them to pronounce.
This is why when a word ends with M in English (some, ham, cream)
Spanish speakers may substitute it with the closest sound available that does show up
at the end of words in Spanish – N (or NG).
This substitution usually happens subconsciously, and awareness is the number one
factor in improving this pronunciation challenge.

The word ‘game’ is pronounced as ‘gain’

The word ‘seem’ is pronounced as ‘seen’
The word ‘foam’ is pronounced as ‘phone’

Mistake #3
Z is pronounced as an S

Since there’s no Z (as in zoo) in Spanish, the Z sound is often misplaced with an S,
especially when it appears in the middle or end of words.
It’s very easy to make this mistake since both sounds look and feel the same, except
for the vibrations of the vocal cords.

This is also a result of the orthography (the way words are written and the spelling).
Since English, unlike Spanish, is not a phonetic language, many times the Z sound is
represented by the letter ‘s’. In Spanish, the letter ‘s’ always represents an S sound.
That creates an additional challenge and confusion related to how the word should
sound (unfortunately, most speakers learn English by reading and writing first and their
listening skills are compromised).
Mistake #4
The /y/ (as in ‘yes’) consonant sound and the /j/ (as in ‘job) switch places.

Often, Spanish speakers may pronounce the /y/ consonant sound as in ‘yes’ ‘years’
and ‘yellow’ as a /j/ sound, pronouncing it as jes, jears, and jello (by the way, this is not
the same /j/ as in ‘jalapeno’).
Also, quite often the substitution will be reversed too.
A word that begins with ‘j’ will be pronounced with a /y/
Yob instead of job
Yust instead of just.

Mistake #5
Different vowels are pronounced the same:

In Spanish, there are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) while in English there are about 16; none of
them really correspond with the English sounds.

Since most Spanish speakers are not familiar or comfortable with the pronunciation of
vowels in English, they tend to merge similar vowels into the closest vowel sound in
Spanish.

Example of different words that are usually pronounced the same:

sheep-ship, reach-rich, leave- live, pool-pull, food-foot, fool-full

Mistake #6
The /v/ consonant is pronounced as /b/
Since the pronunciation of the letter ‘v’ in Spanish is more similar to the pronunciation
of /b/ in English, this pronunciation carries over to English as well.
The V is a fricative and to pronounce it, the bottom lip has to touch the top teeth, and
air passes between the teeth and the lips (it’s a voiced sound).
The B is created as both lips close and touch each other.
If a B is pronounced in place of a ‘v’, words may change meaning:
‘very’ will sound like ‘bury’ and ‘vote’ will sound like ‘boat’.

Mistake #7
The American R is replaced with a Spanish R

The Spanish R and English R are pronounced differently.

In Spanish, there are two R’s (pero, perro) and for both sounds, the tip of the tongue
touches the upper palate.
For the R in English, the tip of the tongue doesn’t touch the upper palate, but curls back
a bit as the lips round.

Spanish speakers often pronounce the English R as they would pronounce the Spanish
R, bringing the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate.
Mistake #8:
Mispronouncing the H

Since the letter H is silent in Spanish, and in English it is generally pronounced, some
speakers mispronounce the H and create a velar fricative instead (just like the ‘j’ sound
in ‘jalapeno’).
While the H in English is soft and sounds like a whisper, the substitution is more
dominant – the back of the tongue is high and close to the soft palate.

Mistake #9:
A vowel is added to words beginning with /st/

In Spanish, a word will never begin in a consonant cluster. To simplify the ‘impossible’
pronunciation of words that begin with ‘st’ in English, Spanish speakers add the /e/
vowel sound to words that begin with ‘st’.

‘estreet’ instead of ‘street’, ‘estrange’ instead of ‘strange’.

Mistake #10:
The /th/ consonant sound is substituted with /t/ or /d/.

For the TH, the tongue has to stick out from between the teeth.
Since Spanish speakers don’t have the TH consonant sound in their language, they
tend to keep the tongue inside for words with TH.
It is a common mispronunciation and sometimes will result in pronouncing different
words the same.
The /th/ in ‘thanks’ (soft, voiceless TH) will be replaced with a /t/ and the word will
sound like ‘tanks’. The /th/ in ‘they’ (voiced) will be replaced with a /d/ and the word will
sound like ‘day’.
Interestingly enough, the voiced TH does occur in Spanish, unintentionally, when the d
appears between two vowels, (for example in ‘pedir’, ‘estado’, ‘lodo’). It’s called an
allophone.